Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Canadians hoping to fly to warmer destinations will have to change their plans starting Sunday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that flights to Mexico and the Caribbean will be suspended starting Sunday after an agreement between Ottawa and airlines. The deal to end flights heading south will remain in effect until April 30.
Trudeau said the airlines will co-ordinate return flights with travellers currently out of the country.
The Prime Minister also said the federal government will bring in mandatory COVID-19 testing upon arrival at airports, and this will be on top of the pre-boarding requirement for a negative COVID-19 test.
After the second test, travellers will have to wait three days at a designated hotel for their test result. Mr. Trudeau said the hotel stays will cost travellers more than $2,000. If the traveller’s second test is negative, they will be able to complete their 14-day quarantine at home.
New Novavax COVID-19 vaccine shows strong protection against British, South African variants, trials show
Interim results from trials involving 15,000 volunteers in Britain show that a new COVID-19 vaccine from U.S. drug-maker Novavax provides strong protection against the British and South African variants of the virus.
Final results will be published in the next few weeks and British officials hope to have the vaccine approved and in circulation during the second half of the year. Canada has ordered up to 76 million doses of the vaccine, which requires two injections.
U.S. stock market watchdog issues warning as GameStop short-selling war resumes
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission waded into the battle between small investors and Wall Street hedge funds on Friday, warning both brokerages and the pack of social media traders that it was closely monitoring potential wrongdoing.
The week-long slugfest, pitching the little man against major financial institutions, has inflated stocks of a number of previously beaten-down companies, drawn outrage from politicians and calls for action from regulators.
It took off again on Friday as brokers eased some of the restrictions they had placed on trading, allowing video game store chain GameStop and headphone maker Koss Corp to jump 50 per cent each in value in early trading.
In a rare joint statement the SEC, traditionally cautious with public pronouncements, said it was working closely with other regulators and stock exchange “to ensure that regulated entities uphold their obligations to protect investors and to identify and pursue potential wrongdoing.”
Read More:
- The GameStop rally could represent the evolution of Occupy Wall Street
- Short squeezes reveal investor anger and cynicism
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
McKinsey is open to settlement regarding opioid work in the U.S. and Canada
McKinsey & Company is in settlement talks with U.S. states over the advice it gave to opioid makers and is prepared to reach a similar arrangement with Canadian provinces, a source familiar with the matter tells The Globe and Mail. The settlement talks cover the period when Canada’s ambassador to China, Dominic Barton, was global managing partner of McKinsey & Co. from 2009 to 2018.
Judge rejects Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou’s request for looser bail terms: A B.C. judge on Friday denied Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou’s request to loosen the bail terms set during her release from jail in 2018. Meng is facing charges in the U.S. for allegedly misleading the bank HSBC regarding Huawei’s business dealings in Iran.
Federal deficit stood at $232-billion with four months left in fiscal year: The federal deficit stood at $232-billion in November, with four months left in the fiscal year, according to the Finance Department’s monthly tracking of Ottawa’s bottom line. The deficit for the April-to-November period of the previous year, before the pandemic hit, was just $11.8-billion.
Ceremonies held to mark fourth anniversary of the Quebec City mosque shooting: Ceremonies marking the fourth anniversary of the Quebec City mosque shooting began today with a call on Ottawa for more action on gun control and for Quebec to recognize the existence of Islamophobia.
MARKET WATCH
Canada’s main stock index suffered its worst week in three months amid a correction that is expected to continue in February.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 320.18 points or 1.8 per cent to 17,337.02.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 620.74 points at 29,982.62. The S&;P 500 index was down 73.14 points at 3,714.24, while the Nasdaq composite was down 266.47 points at 13,070.69.
The Canadian dollar traded for 78.25 cents US compared with 78.06 cents US on Thursday.
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TALKING POINTS
Maybe an ex-CEO and his actress wife jumped the vaccine queue as an act of charity?
Robyn Urback: “Yes, the couple did break quarantine rules and risked the health of everyone in the community by showing up, but surely Beaver Creek’s elders would choose to endure a little deadly virus – even if the nearest hospital is hours away – if it meant seeing someone from a film rated 4.3 out of 10 on IMDB in the flesh.”
Four years after the Quebec mosque tragedy, the Bloc Québécois Leader has learned nothing
Konrad Yakabuski: “No matter how legitimate the desire of some Quebec politicians to keep religion out of the public sphere – a desire informed by the province’s long struggle to break the stranglehold of the Catholic Church on state institutions – too many of them had succumbed to the temptation of raising the bogeyman of Islamization to win votes among pure laine Quebeckers.”
Extremism has taken hold in the police and military. We need to root it out
Brian Levin: “One of the most disturbing facts uncovered in the D.C. assault is the significant apparent overrepresentation of active or retired military or police among the marauding Trump supporters relative to their proportion of the overall population.”
LIVING BETTER
A new tableware collection celebrates human connection, and other style notes
For Fors co-founders Vanessa Eckstein and Muriel Solomon, there’s meaning to be found in the things we surround ourselves with. In October, the two friends solidified that outlook with the launch of Fors, a collection of ceramic and wooden tableware.
Conceptually and aesthetically, Fors has a global spirit. Its curved, sensual shapes were inspired by a vase Eckstein, who hails from Argentina, encountered years ago at a small museum in Mexico, while the intention of creating objects with meaning and thoughtfulness was spurred on during a trip to Mongolia. Solomon, who was born and raised in Paris, fell in love with ceramics while visiting Copenhagen.
With 51 pieces in the collection, including plates, bowls, serving dishes and cups, Fors is intended to be used daily and is safe for dishwashers and microwaves.
TODAY’S LONG READ
To stop gender discrimination at work, Canada has all the laws it needs – but the system enforcing them is broken
Illustration by christy Lundy
When Gabriela Sefcikova discovered that male project managers at the engineering company where she worked were being paid $50 to $62 an hour, while she was only making $39.66, she complained to her bosses.
The company promised to consider her push for a raise at her next performance review, but failed to deliver. When she pointed the gender implications of the difference in pay, she was dismissed, with her employer citing a “shortage of work.”
As Robyn Doolittle writes, there are decades-old laws against sexual harassment in the workplace; against paying men and women in the same job different wages because of their gender; against allowing sexism to influence promotion; against firing someone for becoming pregnant; against demoting a person for taking maternity leave. But as part of the Power Gap investigation, The Globe interviewed 25 women (and one person who identifies as non-binary) who have filed formal complaints of gender discrimination that cover off all those issues.
Read Robyn’s latest Power Gap feature here.
- Related: Explore The Globe’s Power Gap series
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